Some amusement park rides use an endless cable to drive a string of cars in an endless loop. When the motor driving the cable is turned off the cars slow to a halt. Riders can then get into or out of any of the cars. However, in endless loop cable devices used for public transportation these two features--separate cars attached at intervals to and driven in an endless loop by an endless cable, and halts for access to any car--are not combined. Aerial tramways and funicular railways stop for access but are limited to only two cabins on a shuttle route. Chair lifts, surface lifts and pater nosters follow and endless loop but do not stop for access.
Patented endless loop transportation systems reject stop-and-go access as inefficient. Instead, they recommend additional hardware: secondary access loops (Storer, Bell, Cushman); shunting devices (Horn); or deceleration mechanisms (Bouladon, Michalon, Woods). Instead of cars attached only to the drive cable some of these use endless trains in which the cars are coupled directly to one another. These are cumbersome, require a great deal of hardware if they are of any length, and adjust only with difficulty to variable payloads.